Manohari Singh

saxophonist and was the main arranger of seminal film composer R. D. Burman.^[1]

Nepalese Bhusal family in Kolkata. His father and uncle used to play in brass bands. In 1942, he joined the brass band at Bata Shoe Company, Bata Nagar in Kolkata, under its Hungarian conductor Joseph Newman. When Newman left in 1945 to join HMV, Manohari followed. From classical music, he started playing Hindi and Bengali songs for the HMV orchestra, since Newman arranged music for many composers like Kamal Dasgupta, S. D. Burman, Timir Baran and Ravi Shankar. He also played flute and piccolo at the Calcutta Symphony Orchestra. Through fellow musicians such as Francisco Casanovas, conductor at the Symphony Orchestra and band leader at Firpo's Restaurant, George Banks, trumpet player at the Grand Hotel, and others, Manohari was introduced to the Calcutta nightclub scene. He had already tried his hand at the English key flute, the clarinet and the mandolin, but now he decided to learn the saxophone in order to be able to play at nightclubs.^[2]

R.D. Burman, for whom he played the saxophone in many compositions. In addition to playing the alto saxophone, Manohari Singh was also the music assistant and arranger for R. D. Burman

Selmer saxophone (bought in New York City in 1969) and tried to avoid getting even his own fingerprints on it. He (as Basu-Manohari) composed for Sabse Bada Rupaiya, produced by Mehmood, starring Vinod Mehra and Moushmi Chatterji. Here is a romantic song "Wada Karo Sajan", one can enjoy the same beauty and touch of Panchanda.^[4]